Thinking of starting your own business in high-tech? Do yourself a huge favor by reading this book first. The authors, both veterans of many start-ups, address topics vital to your start-up success, such as: Finding start-up opportunities Leaving your current employer but keeping your ideas Protecting your intellectual property Managing the five critical elements of a successful start-up Securing start-up financing Dealing successfully with venture capitalists Writing a winning business plan Creating a management team Handling employment and compensation--who to hire and how to pay them Avoiding the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make Understanding company valuation and exit strategies James Swanson and Michael Baird lay out all the basic concepts clearly, step by step. They demystify the start-up process with frank advice, insiders' tips, and "been there" examples. On-point case studies show you what to do--and what to avoid. An expanded list of resources steers you to help when you need it. You'll learn what it takes for you to create and manage a start-up, and the personal characteristics required to be successful in your new venture. In good economies and bad, entrepreneurs will continue to lead the way to new markets, new ventures, and new technologies. With this comprehensive new guide, you have a great start to start-up success! _____________________________ Since 1975 more than 2 million people preparing for their engineering, surveying, architecture, LEED�, interior design, and landscape architecture exams have entrusted their exam prep to PPI. For more information, visit us at www.ppi2pass.com.

This revised and updated edition of Nesheim's underground Silicon Valley bestseller incorporates twenty-three case studies of successful start-ups, including tables of wealth showing how much money founders and investors realized from each venture. The phenomenal success of the initial public offerings (IPOs) of many new internet companies obscures the fact that fewer than six out of 1 million business plans submitted to venture capital firms will ever reach the IPO stage. Many fail, according to start-up expert John Nesheim, because the entrepreneurs did not have access to the invaluable lessons that come from studying the real-world venture experiences of successful companies. Now they do. Acclaimed by entrepreneurs the world over, this practical handbook is filled with hard-to-find information and guidance covering every key phase of a start-up, from idea to IPO: how to create a winning business plan, how to value the firm, how venture capitalists work, how they make their money, where to find alternative sources of funding, how to select a good lawyer, and how to protect intellectual property. Nesheim aims to improve the odds of success for first-time high-tech entrepreneurs, and offers an insider's perspective from firsthand experience on one of the toughest challenges they face -- convincing venture capitalists or investment banks to provide financing. This complete, classic reference tool is essential reading for first-time high-tech entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs already involved in a start-up who want to increase their chances of success to rise to the top.

This book provides actual entrepreneurial stories giving insight into the pitfalls and successes one might find in starting or even continuing with a small high-tech business. Insights into innovative, speculative, and (largely) successful new ventures, as experienced by those who went through the process, are complemented by comments and observations from others in the field including researchers, economists, investors, regional development agencies, technology transfer organizations, and universities.The book is recommended to entrepreneurs in all high technology disciplines and in particular for students and early career professionals. It can be also useful for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in entrepreneurship, which many institutions are currently introducing, and to those who are interested in how a high-tech business might develop.

This book is written primarily for people who are creating the future high-tech world by designing, building, and marketing innovative products. More specifically, it is for all engineers, engineering managers, entrepreneurs and intapreneurs. The book provides insight into the problems entrepreneurs face and gives a model for successful startup companies in a formal checklist.

If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.

This two-volume set has been written primarily for engineers, technicians, and scientists who are contemplating the unknown but attractive world of technological entrepreneurship, a key driver of economic growth in developed countries and critical in stimulating growth in developing countries. The purpose is to prepare these professionals as members of teams focusing on commercializing new technology-based products. The material has also been used to introduce engineering students to the processes involved in technological entrepreneurship. Volume one provides a background of fundamentals and theory to prepare the reader for the venture launch. Topics include the entrepreneurial process, the venture team, developing and marketing high tech products, and launching the new venture. Volume two goes into detail in critical areas such as intellectual property protection, legal forms of organization, financial projections, and business plan preparation and delivery. The primary emphasis is focused on creating lean and agile organizations capable of recognizing opportunities, quickly developing introductory products for small test markets to better define the opportunities, and using the results of those test markets to arrive at a product with wide acceptance capable of driving growth.

This two-volume set has been written primarily for engineers, technicians, and scientists who are contemplating the unknown but attractive world of technological entrepreneurship, a key driver of economic growth in developed countries and critical in stimulating growth in developing countries. The purpose is to prepare these professionals as members of teams focusing on commercializing new technology-based products. The material has also been used to introduce engineering students to the processes involved in technological entrepreneurship. Volume one provides a background of fundamentals and theory to prepare the reader for the venture launch. Topics include the entrepreneurial process, the venture team, developing and marketing high tech products, and launching the new venture. Volume two goes into detail in critical areas such as intellectual property protection, legal forms of organization, financial projections, and business plan preparation and delivery. The primary emphasis is focused on creating lean and agile organizations capable of recognizing opportunities, quickly developing introductory products for small test markets to better define the opportunities, and using the results of those test markets to arrive at a product with wide acceptance capable of driving growth.

Entrepreneurs have led economies out of downturns in the last 100 years and evidence points to this trend continuing into the future. In fact, regardless of country or economic conditions, entrepreneurial enterprises are on the rise. High-tech start-ups, where innovation, dedication, collaboration, and pure genius align into a successful enterprise

This book contains the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2015, held in Helsinki, Finland, in May 2015. While agile development has already become mainstream in industry, this field is still constantly evolving and continues to spur an enormous interest both in industry and academia. The XP conference series has always played, and continues to play, an important role in connecting the academic and practitioner communities, providing a forum for both formal and informal sharing and development of ideas, experiences, and opinions. The theme of XP 2015 "Delivering Value: Moving from Cyclic to Continuous Value Delivery" reflects the modern trend towards organizations that are simultaneously very efficient and flexible in software development and delivery. The 15 full and 7 short papers accepted for XP 2015 were selected from 44 submissions. All of the submitted papers went through a rigorous peer-review process. Additionally, 11 experience reports were selected from 45 proposals, and in each case the authors were shepherded by an experienced researcher.

Recognizing the unique needs of the technology startup, Duening focuses on intellectual property development, funding, and marketing/selling more than other texts in this market. Extensive use of technology examples, case studies, and assignments keeps the book relevant and motivating for engineering students. Rich in case studies, examples, and in-chapter elements that focus on the challenges of launching and operating a technology venture In-depth examination of intellectual property development, valuation, deal structuring, and equity preservation, issues of most relevance to technology start-ups Extensive discussion of technology management and continuous innovation as a competitive advantage Addresses the issue of leading, managing, motivating, and compensating technical workers More time on the fundamentals of marketing and selling, as these are elements of entrepreneurship commonly most neglected by engineers and scientists